a few words in favour of their design. And then he
concluded in these words: "I commend you to Him, who is able to carry you
through all opposition, and support you under all discouragements."

On the fourth, eleventh, and eighteenth of September, the commitee were
employed variously. Among other things they voted their thanks to Mr.
Leigh, a clergyman of the established church, for the offer of his services
for the county of Norfolk. They ordered also one thousand of the circular
letters to be additionally printed.

At one of these meetings a resolution was made, that Granville Sharp,
esquire, be appointed chairman. This appointment, though now first formally
made in the minute book, was always understood to have taken place; but the
modesty of Mr. Sharp was such, that, though repeatedly pressed, he would
never consent to take the chair, and he generally refrained from coming
into the room till after he knew it to be taken. Nor could he be prevailed
upon, even after this resolution, to alter his conduct: for though he
continued to sign the papers, which were handed to him by virtue of holding
this office, he never was once seated as the chairman during the twenty
years in which he attended at these meetings. I thought it not improper to
mention this trait in his character. Conscious that he engaged in the cause
of his fellow-creatures solely upon the sense of his duty as a Christian,
he seems to have supposed either that he had done nothing extraordinary to
merit such a distinction, or to have been fearful lest the acceptance of it
should bring a stain upon the motive, on which alone he undertook it.

[Illustration]

On the second and sixteenth of October two sittings took place; at the
latter of which a sub-commitee, which had been appointed for the purpose,
brought in a design for a seal. An African was seen, (as in the figure[A],)
in chains in a supplicating posture, kneeling with one knee upon the
ground, and with both his hands lifted up to Heaven, and round the seal was
observed the following motto, as if he was uttering the words himself--"Am
I not a Man and a Brother?" The design having been approved of, a seal was
ordered to be engraved from it. I may mention here, that this seal, simple
as the design was, was made to contribute largely, as will be shown in its
proper place, towards turning the attention of our countrymen to the case
of the injured Africans, and of procuring a warm interest in their favour.